Dennis Cox and Chris Lea discuss the Carolina Panthers losing 48-14 to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The guys have questions about head coach Dave Canales, quarterback Bryce Young, Ejiro Evero as defensive coordinator, and just how much Chuba Hubbard means to the team.

I thought we left this I thought we left this This feeling I thought I thought it was gone What a quack Let’s get this sucker started Get dialed in Panthers fans Here comes an in-depth look at your team Exclusive interviews locker room insight Let’s huddle up Let’s just do it OK Panthers playbook driven by Carolina Ford dealers Here are your hosts Dennis Cox and Chris Lee Welcome back to another episode of Panthers Playbook That’s Chris Lee Dennis Coxton with you By the way just go go in the comment section Dent because that’s what we’re gonna do right here So leave your thoughts in the comment section down below Hit that subscribe button while you’re at it But also remember Carolina Ford Dealers is your sponsor of Panthers Playbook with the Ford F-150 on your team It’s game on See your Carolina Ford dealer today Uh Chris um what the duck was that My goodness That that just all three phases of the game sucked Call it what it is Call it what it is Overall it sucked There are a couple of like a play here or there you’re like oh that was nice Oh that was nice But other than that terrible terrible Um We’ve talked about before how how bad the defense is um when you don’t have JC Horn We don’t have Josie Jewel you know it’s just you’re you’re taking away so much just with those two players um alone and um you know asking everybody else to kind of step up and we’ve talked about it before like a lot of these guys most of these guys are are jags you know what I’m saying especially on defense And you know what this is a day I can’t even really I don’t even know if I’m necessarily mad at Ijero Evero you know it’s it’s it’s just like Not having JC Horn there not having Josie Jewell there You know I kind of expected this and then um you know finding out yesterday that Chuba Hubbard wasn’t gonna play he’s and he’s gonna be shut down for the season um Yeah I I had a little inkling in my head that uh Dave Canals was like I don’t have to run the ball now So it’s like and that’s what he did He’s like oh gosh I don’t have to call these dumb running plays We could just have Bryce just air it out and do it the way I like it So I mean that’s the result that we got The offense didn’t help the defense at all and Knowing that the defense needs help You remember when the defense was like the best thing on the Panthers team and the defense helped the offense The offense isn’t helping the defense at all There’s no concept of helping the defense So this is this is the result we get because of it Yeah it was amazing how the very first drive for Tampa Bay to start the game It was like practice They marched right down the field and like all those injuries you mentioned Take away the decent players with good players that are already on a bad defense You take them away you you got what you got today It looked like a preseason out there But for Tampa they marched right down the field first drive I actually like the first drive for Carolina There was tempo It was run pass run pass run past You got a touchdown pass from uh Bryce Young to Adam Thielen I was like OK I liked the the tempo in which they went with it Defense actually held Tampa to a field goal when they got into the red zone The next 2 drives for Carolina’s offense were 6 plays 0 runs called Now I know Bryce had to scramble I’m talking called runs The first drive 6 plays 3 runs 3 pass redesigned called runs 3 passes The next 6 plays all dropbacks All dropbacks and sure enough 3 and out 3 and out before you know it you’re down 13 to 7 and then things eventually got away for you Before you know it it’s 27 to 7 and just it’s all gone from there Let’s let’s go let’s go through this All right um 33 1st downs to 13 we don’t even have to say who got more Um 551 yards to 204 yards 349 passing yards and 165 202 rushing yards to 39 5th straight game Carolina’s defenses allowed 200 plus rushing guards Go on 40 rushing attempts to 13 41 minutes and 11 seconds in time of possession to 1849 When I talk about like the offense helping the defense like I had somebody who tweeted back at me and I was like you know they’ve already abandoned the run This was in the first half They’re like with no Cuba what do you expect them you expect any of these guys to change the game And I’m not asking for them to change the game I’m asking for you to buy your defense you know some time No like there are so many 3 and outs in this game Um like and you know Mike Boone had two decent runs and they looked OK He got what 1011 yards out of those two runs Uh so he’s averaging 5 per run and those were the only two times he got the ball handed off to him Uh Raheem Blackshear has been out of practice pretty much the entire year They they just started running him the last game so he didn’t have his best game But still I mean how many attempts did he have What like only 88 attempts and 3 came on the very first drive by the way Like it’s just it’s not good enough Like I don’t care that the that Cuba is not playing It’s it’s it’s just not good enough And even if I was talking about before there’s not a lot of creativity in the run They were running that sweep before uh with um what’s my man I didn’t see him Devin Tompkins Yeah he was a scratch And so you know they didn’t they didn’t have him in there Because you know and now you don’t have the sweep that you’ve ran before I’ve seen him run it one time 1 or 2 times with Xavier Liguette Um but it’s like there’s not there’s not really much that is putting stress on the defense here when you know it’s just Bryce Young drop back and make something happen which by the way With what he had he made some lemonade out of these lemons man He made some lemonade out of these lemons but that’s the part we can’t keep expecting him to do that He’s got we’ve got to help him out and the offense has to help out the defense We bring this up with when it comes to Derek Brown on the defense right We’re like well Derek Brown’s not there that’s why the defense stinks Is Hubbard being exactly is that the same thing with Chuba Hubbard Like are we that dependent on one person that the offense can’t move that the offense can’t even be like decent in the run game where you can’t hey we’re gonna still try and run the football so we can have a play action It was 7/7 or 10-7 the second time they got the ball 3 plays and out all three again were designed passes Tampa goes down kicks the field goal Still one possession game The next drive 3 plays all passes out before you know it it gets away from you right away It’s like you’re really that dependent on one guy one guy you’re that dependent on him Because right now that dude you didn’t pay him enough by all accounts then if that’s the case If that’s the case you didn’t pay him enough No not at all God that’s the thing that like blows my mind That’s the thing that blows my mind is if you take that one dude off the field and it’s just everything turns into a disaster from a play calling standpoint scheme the whole thing I don’t that’s that’s something I can’t uh that’s something I can’t wrap my head around Chris I just can’t wrap my head around that I’m I’m with you um sign that duck This is the duck please It worked well for Tampa Bay Um there are probably some people and I’ve had some people who tweeted at me who aren’t so mad at it because like you know for them it’s all about the the draft picks But again it goes back to what we were saying before like keep this team and the guys that’s on this team like used to winning and in winning situations That will definitely carry over momentum Uh until next year Um and it’s there’s once again through um the winds that they have had 4 of them And even in the losses that they’ve had I don’t I don’t I’m trying to think of a situation Or a game where I I think that Dave Canales coached his ass off Like what like what did you do What adjustments did you make What did you do within the game and the game plan and the planning and all that to bring to make everything happen Because really like a lot of it that we can point back to especially with a couple of their wins are the other team messing up And then then you have like an awesome game from Bryce Young and an awesome game from Chuba Hubbard Like at what point does the coaching staff step up This is like we could talk about the players all we want And again I’m I’m laying off of Jiro Evero Now I’m just looking at the head guy right now because like if if your team keeps showing up in games like this that’s on you This isn’t just a team This is on you This is how you’re managing the game This is how you’re managing their week heading into it just because uh Horn and uh Chuba Hubbard and uh Josie Jewell are not available like that shouldn’t spell blowout It shouldn’t be 4814 because of that because of those three guys And so I mean listen and let me clarify because people like to jump out the window I’m not saying fire him I’ve always said he needs 2 years minimum but boy there’s there’s some glaring things that he needs to work on as a head coach Oh yeah very much so I mean we’ve we’ve hit the roster holes massively The lack of depth and who else has hit the roster holes massively Every other team’s running game they’re hitting the holes massively 5th straight game allowing 200 yards 5th straight game allowing 200 + yards bro it’s not sustainable It’s just I I and people were trying to defend Ero Like I’ll I’ll go on Evero here right like right quick Mike like you can’t defend this You just can’t defend this You can’t You can’t There’s no there’s no way shape or form you go on the next season going run it back boys let’s go You you can’t there’s no way you can do that Even if you overhaul the roster what if it still stinks again next year then you’re just gonna be right where you are right now Like that but this is but this is the thing though That’s when you can tell like who’s doing a great coaching job when you have nothing available to you and you’re still like OK A couple of years ago this point of the season when the Panthers are possibly trying to get like sneak into the playoffs under uh under Steve Wilks right That defense really only had JC Horns hurt by this time That defense only really had Brian Burns and uh Derek Brown Yeah Leon was there Frankie Lou sorry I forgot that that’s my guy too Um like Jeremy Chen when he was last used well but still even that even with that defense we weren’t looking at it talking about how amazing that defense was And look at the coaching job That that one man did to bring the entire roster up to like they that’s the difference that I’m really talking about going back to what I said before There’s a lot of those games where you look at it and it’s like Steve Wilkes put his team in position and willed out some wins that they probably should not have gotten And that was because of Steve Wilks right Had nothing to do with other teams just messing up at the end of the game You got 2 wins this year because two teams messed up right Like and then after that it’s just like a couple of your players just kind of rising to the occasion At what point Canales you’re talking about Evero What point do they rise to the occasion What point do they out-coach what they have on you know available to them on the roster right Like that that is a sign Of a good coach and a good coaching staff At what point do we have 1 more week left of this Come on man Like there’s gotta be some pride somewhere we know that there’s no playoffs that’s been long gone It’s You talk about like you know lack of personnel and different things like that and then coaches be able to elevate that talking about there’s the standards the standard the saying in Pittsburgh with Mike Tomlin Remember the years where they still had winning records with guys like Mason Rudolph and Duck Hodges and Mitch Trubisky and Kenny Pickett at quarterback And I know they still had some dudes like TJ Watt and Cam Hayward on defense and Mina Fitzpatrick I I get that boy but you still had winning records with those guys I just mentioned Like eventually this is the one thing that I think is the next step for Canales as a head coach This is the final thing I’ll say You have to be more than just a play caller dude You’re the head coach of the freaking team You gotta elevate everyone on the roster You can’t just be an offensive guy with the title of head coach You have to be more than that You either need to step into Ero’s meetings and say fix this right now Do something different right now because what you’re doing ain’t working They just had 200+ yards rushing again for the 5th straight game Don’t talk about oh it’s about our fundamentals or get back to our fundamentals Well your fundamentals suck I’ll just say that Fix it man Walk over there down the hall be more than just an offensive coordinator which is basically what you are right now You’re a glorified OC with the head coach title Fix the damn thing This is on you as a head coach Fix it Be more than just an offensive coach Dennis I can’t believe what I’m about to say right now Hm We need David Temer to step in and be like yo get rid of this guy Like we need something different like because like Dave for real for real like for real for real let’s look eye to eye for real like if if you think that’s good enough Like Mr Tepper you gotta step in This is maybe the only time I’m gonna ask you to do that Please we need some more concerts in Charlotte Step in OK The running water is not enough We need to stop the run Step in We need some infrastructure around here man We need some infrastructure and we need guys who can have some gap integrity Step in OK I need more restaurants I saw police officers tackle men Uptown Charlotte Go get them and bring them on Might be the best The police officers are tackling dudes in uptown Charlotte Bring them in Step in Mr Tepper where you at Again leave your thoughts in the comment section Just vent You can knock hats off of people’s head but your defense can’t put a hat on a hat Step in We’re gonna end it right there Carolina Ford dealer Your sponsor of Panthers Playbook with the Ford F-150 and your team this game on See your Carolina Ford dealer today Uh Chris uh we will see you in the new year We’ll see this is how we’re gonna end the year This is how we’re ending 2024 man It’s crazy We went into Christmas amazing and this is how we’re gonna end Hey man I love you Dennis 2024 has been amazing uh for us both for this podcast Thank you all for watching listening all of that We got one more game left And then we’re gonna do a lot of lot of chatting in the offseason about what we need Lots of chat We’ll see you in the new year